Will bitcoin transaction fees be too high in the future?

[avikz]

On the contrary, I hope that the fees will be lower over time.

How? Would you mind explaining?

The more and more people adopts bitcoin and starts using it for whatever reasons, the fee will only go up. Whenever we see a lot of transactions passing through the network we have seen a trend of increasing fees. It usually happens during a sharp rise or fall of bitcoin price. Lot of charts are available in the internet so go ahead and check a few of them.

If we don't move to LN, bitcoin fees will only go up with more adoption.

[1714761278]

1714761278

[BlackHatCoiner]

Based on all these replies I read, from newbies to Legendaries, I realised that this is something that no one thought of on bitcoin. At least, no one has a solution. Right now we can may payments really cheap, I had made a payment using only 300 satoshis. It took 5 days, but it did. The median is about $2. I've noticed that by paying 1 sat/byte (which is much lower than $2) can take about 1 day to get confirmed. So even if the median reaches $10, we can still make transactions really cheap.

Now, I don't know much about that lightning network, but I'm sure that not every bitcoin adopter will switch on using that.

The conclusion is that the $100k seem to be a dream that won't come true...

[Rafiqul]

While it is not possible to predict with certainty whether future bitcoin transactions will be more expensive, I think it will depend on the quality of bitcoin in the future. As Bitcoin continues to be mined, its supply has come to a standstill. If people use bitcoin more in the future, the cost of each bitcoin transaction will definitely increase.

[maldini]

I don't think anything is going to happen with Bitcoin. There doesn't seem to be much to think about right now. Time will tell what is going to happen in the future. In the near future, modern steps must be taken to keep Bitcoin afloat and to reduce its use. In the near future, modern measures will have to be taken to increase the use of Bitcoin. This will reduce the transaction fees of Bitcoin and more people will be inclined towards Bitcoin.

[wiss19]

This is the chart of Bitcoin's Avg. Transaction fee: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html

Right now the median fee is about $2. After lots of halvings the reward won't be enough to satisfy the miners. I guess that after a decade, bitcoin will be more widespread, as a result, more transactions will occur every second. Won't this increase the median fee? If it does, bitcoin will start being a not-so medium of exchange. Imagine paying $5 for a transaction. Even paypal doesn't charge that much.

Nah I don’t think so, when the times comes there will always be other means to make things easy for people. Just like the lightening network, maybe by then lightening network will be working perfectly and people will be able to make use of it to carry out their transactions easily. And another thing you have to know is that the fees for transactions will only increase when there are too many transactions on the network and it’s congested, that’s when the fees you will have to pay for transaction will be high.There is always a means to work on it when the time comes.

[Abiky]

This is the chart of Bitcoin's Avg. Transaction fee: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html

Right now the median fee is about $2. After lots of halvings the reward won't be enough to satisfy the miners. I guess that after a decade, bitcoin will be more widespread, as a result, more transactions will occur every second. Won't this increase the median fee? If it does, bitcoin will start being a not-so medium of exchange. Imagine paying $5 for a transaction. Even paypal doesn't charge that much.

With high network congestion (many people using Bitcoin) you'll expect high fees on the Blockchain. It's something inevitable due to Bitcoin's limited transaction capacity. A quick solution to this would be increasing the block size. But even that would undermine Bitcoin's level of decentralization. That's why developers have taken the approach of scaling Bitcoin in an "off-chain" manner. The Lightning Network aims to bring instant payments at a fraction of the cost. It's hoped that people use this solution in the future as fees become higher on the Blockchain. Only those willing to send money across borders in the safest way possible will perform transactions on the main Bitcoin blockchain. The rest will be using the LN for daily payments.

Despite Bitcoin's high fees, there's always the choice of sending Bitcoins with the lowest fee possible. It's much cheaper this way, but extremely slow to process. It could take hours or even a day for your Bitcoin transaction to go through. As long as Bitcoin remains decentralized, nothing else matters. When you pay a high fee, you're paying a premium to keep your transaction extremely secure against external manipulation. In other words, you get what you pay for (which is decentralization and censorship resistance). Cryptocurrencies that have extremely low fees are very insecure, making them an unreliable payment system. That's why it costs a lot to transact on the Bitcoin blockchain, as it's the most secure cryptocurrency in the world today. Since scaling Bitcoin is not necessary for it to work as intended (as decentralization is what really matters), people can use other cryptocurrencies if they feel that fees on the BTC blockchain are too high. It's a matter of a person's preferences over anything else. With the Lightning Network already in motion, it's expected that Bitcoin would reach the level of PayPal and VISA in the future. If that happens, Bitcoin would win the war against the traditional monetary system of today. Just my thoughts

[DatKing]

This is one of the things that I am afraid of about Bitcoin. There is a possibility to be that way in the future. I think the important thing to work on is providing as low as possible fees and as much as possible transaction speed. If the balance can be redressed, there will be not much problem for Bitcoin users.

[samuel-sd]

While the reward is slowly going down for the miners every halving the price of bitcoin in terms of fiat is still going up. As long as bitcoin's price continues to rise it should be in an okay spot we've seen the hashrate go down a few times before and just like the price of bitcoin it's only a matter of time until it goes back up again.

The bitcoin network security straightly depends on the amount of money that miners receive. Hash rate does not fully reflect the security level, it might grow because of technology development. Moreover, if bitcoin market cap made 10x or 50x, would it be enough to just double or triple the hash rate (from security perspective)?

Also even if there's more than 400k transactions the miners can't handle it all in one day though.

Can't or won't?

[Sadlife]

I don't think so, scalability will be not a problem for Bitcoin, because as you said. When it becomes more widespread then more people will want to get into the Crypto space and even mined it. Especially in this uncertain times when fiat is in a verge of collapse.
Governments such as US and france even started to look for alternatives, and recent rumors the US government bought mining riggs. What im saying, as long as there is demand in BTC. Transaction fees will not be a problem.

[Expecto]

This is the chart of Bitcoin's Avg. Transaction fee: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html

Right now the median fee is about $2. After lots of halvings the reward won't be enough to satisfy the miners. I guess that after a decade, bitcoin will be more widespread, as a result, more transactions will occur every second. Won't this increase the median fee? If it does, bitcoin will start being a not-so medium of exchange. Imagine paying $5 for a transaction. Even paypal doesn't charge that much.

The increase or decrease in Bitcoin transaction fees is dependent on the demand for Bitcoin. If the demand starts to decrease, the fees will start increasing. If the other way around happens, the fees will start decreasing. So, demand is a very important factor on this.

[Abiky]

This is one of the things that I am afraid of about Bitcoin. There is a possibility to be that way in the future. I think the important thing to work on is providing as low as possible fees and as much as possible transaction speed. If the balance can be redressed, there will be not much problem for Bitcoin users.

High fees are a concern as it limits Bitcoin's adoption in the mainstream world. Luckily, there's already a solution that allows Bitcoin to process transactions instantly for less than a penny. The solution is called "The Lightning Network" and operates entirely off the Bitcoin blockchain. This will reduce the burden of the network, resulting in lesser fees for transactions performed on-chain. While the Lightning Network is still under heavy development, it seems to be doing its job pretty well. The real problem is making people adopt Bitcoin's "Layer-Two" solution for scalability. So far, the number of crypto companies and businesses adopting the LN are extremely low. If these entities started accepting LN payments, Bitcoin would've been relieved from high network congestion. It's up to wallet providers and exchanges to adopt the LN to make people experience the benefits of instant transactions at a fraction of the cost.

No matter if fees are high or low, Bitcoin will still survive for a long time. In case fees remain high for long periods of time, people can simply choose a lower fee at the cost of slower transaction processing times. The network will adjust if the number of people soliciting low transaction fees are higher than those who not. Even with Bitcoin's current situation, there are plenty of cryptocurrencies out there on the market with greater transaction capacity. People have a choice to either keep transacting on the main Bitcoin blockchain, use Bitcoin's "Layer-Two" scalability solution, or use Bitcoin Cash. Regardless of what happens in the future, Bitcoin's decentralization will ultimately matter above scalability. Just my thoughts

[GideonGono]

I believe that Bitcoin high transaction fees would be one of the reasons why people would stay away in Bitcoin in the future,
If we could find or even create a good crypto that could compete against Bitcoin with a lower transaction I think people would start to embrace it and slowly forgets about Bitcoin.
Transaction fee is the reason why crypto is being left by small investors instead of gaining profit they would lose because of the high transaction fees.

[Swordsoffreedom]

The Bitcoin market is expanding day by day. A lot of new investor are joining on it. At the same time, the price of Bitcoin is rising. I don't think it will be a big problem if the transaction fee goes up a bit as the price of bitcoin goes up. We all know that LN being more polished and easier. So, we do not know what will happen after a decade.

[Karartma1]

If we limit ourselves to value the bitcoin price in dollars (or in any other fiat currency, it does not matter) fees will always be high.
Some of you don't know that when bitcoin started to become more popular fees were super high (if you think of their fiat value today). (picked one tx with BTC0.03 as an example)
This all fees drama is simply subjective. Perhaps, one day we will be storing our wealth in the most secure network available and there will be no need to move your wealth unless truly necessary.
Take gold for example: do you know what it takes to get some gold bars out of a physical vault?

Remember, when bitcoin price will go to the moon that's the sign that fiat currencies eventually lost their value against the most ingenious asset ever created by humankind.

[witcher_sense]

Given that bitcoin has a finite total supply and can be thought of as deflationary currency, the value of each unit is going to naturally increase over time. In the future, even if fees stay the same as today, it will be more valuable for miners and probably can cover their expenses. In terms of dollar, fees will be significantly higher, mining will still be a profitable business, nothing is going to change. In terms of bitcoin, will fees be higher in the future? In my opinion, it is still hard to predict anything. If, in the future, bitcoin is used exclusively as a network for final settlements, fees will be higher but users won't notice any difference. They will be paying high fees to miners in order to proceed one transaction a month. Small transactions, those ones that don't need to be written down on immutable bitcoin blockchain, will be done on second or third layers. To put it simply, you don't have to pay high fees for every cap of coffee you drink every morning, just wait a month and pay for thirty portions at once.

[imstillthebest]

To put it simply, you don't have to pay high fees for every cap of coffee you drink every morning, just wait a month and pay for thirty portions at once.

coffee is always been the example use when it comes to btc fees talk . your saying that your gonna buy a stock of coffee ? or what  ?

because  i dont hear a coffee shop that accept monthly payments but why not ? if that help solve the issue on the btc fee's they should start creating a flexible payment option like this  . there was a time that btc fee really got high but that did not continue  . i expect same situation can happen in the future

[witcher_sense]

coffee is always been the example use when it comes to btc fees talk . your saying that your gonna buy a stock of coffee ? or what  ?

because  i dont hear a coffee shop that accept monthly payments but why not ? if that help solve the issue on the btc fee's they should start creating a flexible payment option like this  . there was a time that btc fee really got high but that did not continue  . i expect same situation can happen in the future

You can save on bitcoin fees with Lightning Network Loyalty cards! They don't exist but since we are talking about the future, we can do a small thought experiment. Imagine you are obsessed with coffee and therefore decided to become a regular customer in a nearby coffee shop. They accept only bitcoin, because we are living under bitcoin standard, after all. You don't want to pay high network fees for every cap of coffee, you don't want others to know that you have an obsession with caffeine. You open a payment channel with coffee shop and start buying coffee with zero fees. No one knows about those transactions except you and cofee shop owner. You keep buying coffee every single day. Someday a coffee shop owner will tell you that he is eager to see his money on an immutable base layer. You conduct a transaction of final settlement. Once a month, once an year, once a decade.

[noorammak]

Future Bitcoin transaction fees are higher for sure, but we have solutions to reduce Bitcoin's transaction costs.
Now that Bitcoin is wrapped on Ethereum's blockchain, in the future, there will be many blockchains implementing Bitcoin wrap.
That also means less circulating bitcoins, and so does the cost of transferring money on the bitcoin network.

[rodskee]

Future Bitcoin transaction fees are higher for sure, but we have solutions to reduce Bitcoin's transaction costs.

What is that solution?fees will go higher and higher but that is because Bitcoin price will go up together with the fee,so nothing to be afraid for.

Now that Bitcoin is wrapped on Ethereum's blockchain, in the future, there will be many blockchains implementing Bitcoin wrap.

What does it mean "Bitcoin is Wrapped on Ethereum Blockchain"? but yeah there will be many blockchain because altcoins are continuously growing and
 being created nowadays,though legit can only be counted by our fingernails ..

That also means less circulating bitcoins, and so does the cost of transferring money on the bitcoin network.

Yeah Bitcoin will be less circulate because of higher value and also because it will be hoard by whales.
Altcoin will be circulated more often on that point.

[yazher]

This is the chart of Bitcoin's Avg. Transaction fee: https://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/bitcoin-transactionfees.html

Right now the median fee is about $2. After lots of halvings the reward won't be enough to satisfy the miners. I guess that after a decade, bitcoin will be more widespread, as a result, more transactions will occur every second. Won't this increase the median fee? If it does, bitcoin will start being a not-so medium of exchange. Imagine paying $5 for a transaction. Even paypal doesn't charge that much.

You have it backward man, as I am typing this post, some developers are already giving us the best of lightning network to be launched. If the lightning network is fully developed, we will see some acceleration in the BTC transaction and the payment will be drastically decreased. it is not the way you think of it. after a few years from now, we will see a major difference both in transactions fees and the transaction speed if they fully initialized and successfully fixed all the current bugs of this technology.